Oui mon commandant! or Yes, my commander

Amadou Hampâté Bâ

Background

This book is the second and last part of the memoirs of the author. It was published posthumously. Historically, the events take place during the colonial period principally in Haute-Volta [actual Burkina Faso] and Mali, where Amadou Hampâté Bâ worked for the colonial administration after his studies when at his mother request, he refused to pursue his formation in Senegal. The title of the book comes from the fact that the local populations working or interacting with the French administration were almost always answering them with a “Yes my commander” without any opposition, and sometimes, without really understanding, it was an automatic reflex that developed out of habit…

We follow Amadou’ s journey on becoming a man. We understand more about the functioning of the colonies (structure, administration). An objective glance is thrown upon the good and bad practices going on during this period. We also learn more about the African customs and traditions among the different tribes living in these particular regions. A light is shed on how colonisation transformed and fractured the pre-colonial governing systems and societal hierarchy regarding family, traditions, education, security and spirituality.

Summary and criticism

The story starts with Amadou’s travel to the colony of Haute-Volta. The journey lasted a little more than 1 month which is understandable considering the then limited transportation infrastructures. During the different halts, he met with local inhabitants and elders who shared with him some traditions and history of their regions, especially regarding the kingdoms and dynasties. He also spent 10 days in his native village, Bandiagara, where he met with his childhood friends from the same age class. He also got engaged to his first wife. It is important to specify that marriage in their community was more based on mutual assistance and solidarity. It was viewed as a protection and coalition pact between the 2 families who were involved in arranging the union. That is the main reason, besides the approval of the Islamic religion, why a man is allowed to marry up to 4 women in his community. As an example, the author married his second wife after she got divorced from her first husband due to conjugal violence. Her dad passed away and she didn’t have any financial support so Amadou’s mother initiated the marriage. Amadou did not want at first, he felt trapped by his mother who did not tell him until the last minute. He politely refused the union, promising to help the woman if needed, wanting to preserve his wife and children, however, his mother and spiritual leader convinced him that it was the right decision to make. A good point to note is that in his tradition, the parents usually have the last word; even when the children reach adulthood and are married with their own children, the parents still have full authority on them as long as they are alive.

During his professional career in the colonial administration, he met a wide range of people, good and bad; some of the French people were very nice and considering, even learning the local languages and certain usual customs and habits, some other viewed local populations as savage, primitive, unmannered, uneducated and dishonest. Their opinion was biased given the propaganda that was emphasising to the French population the bad traits of some traditions and rituals (anthropophagy in Central Africa) in order to legitimize colonisation (*Frantz Fanon, Dark Skin, White Masks). Hence, there was always this necessity from the local administrative workers to prove themselves, to be irreproachable and blameless. However, understanding the real African culture and tradition, rooted in hard work, honesty, solidarity and communitarianism, all these stereotypes do not really make sense. Moreover, the author is a good example, he was always truthful and hardworking in his relationships and work, he earned the respect, consideration and admiration from all his managers, even the toughest ones; he advised most of them on how to resolve conflicts arising between the local populations or on how to handle some administrative tasks to which they were not used. For some time, Amadou Hampâté Bâ successfully occupied the position of circle commandant by interim (the top administrative position right after the Governor who was the representant of the French President in the colony), when the actual one was absent for a long period of time. The main lesson is that as long as a person knows her worth, is proud of her origins and traditions, and carries herself with confidence and respect, she would be respected by the others no matter what, even if she is evolving in an environment where she belongs to an ethnic minority.

Another take from the book are the injustices that were happening in the colonies against the local populations. They were enrolled against their will into forced labour, mainly for road work. They had to pay taxes in raw materials and also sell these at low costs to the overseas companies and commerce chambers that settled in the colonies. Additionally, the populations of each village had to build houses for the use of any person from the colonial administration who would halt by their territory, they also had to fully cater them for the entire length of their stay. During both world wars, a lot of men from all the colonies were sent into the battlefield, many died and were severely wounded without them or their families getting the same level of compensation as their French peers. The French men working in the colonies also had the right to get colonial wives for the time of their service and the children born from these types of unions were taken away from their mothers and sent to mixed race children orphanages as soon as their fathers were leaving their positions for whatever reason (end of service, illness, assignment in another circumscription, circle, colony). Most of the local children were sent to French schools in order to work as teachers or in the administrative body of the colony at the end of their formation. This system completely fragmented the organisation of the local communities; the younger generations did not benefit from the traditional teaching and education, they couldn’t be immersed in the life and history of their community, they did not enjoy all the wealth gained from interacting with the wise men, whose death has been compared by the author to a burning library. They could not acquire the spiritual formation and understand the many rituals that made and strengthened the identity of their communities. They have been uprooted from their civilisation, and from an early age, they have been initiated to a culture, a history and a language that were not theirs, in which they did not recognize themselves nor their ancestors. This is also at the origin of this ongoing inferiority complex, this feeling of having a culture and civilisation less than the occidental one since unknown, hidden, deformed on purpose by the colonisers. The work of Amadou Hampâté Bâ, since the independences, with many others such as Boubou Hama from Niger, has been to reconstitute the history of Africa, especially the Western region, through the oral tradition collected from the griots, wise men and traditionalists. The ancient African civilisation, in most of the regions, is rich of his oral traditions; the people were really attached to their word and the story of their dynasties and tribes was transmitted orally very early on, in order to train the memory skills of the children. This recollection project was supported and financed by the UNESCO and it really helped at reasserting the value and richness of the African cultural legacy and civilisational heritage.

Finally, this book offers a fairly complete and objective overview of the French colonisation. Among the people the author interacted with, there were good and bad. He does stress the fact that one should not generalise and think of all the French people who worked in the colonial administration or other services as bad. Some of them were fair, righteous and very much respected the local populations’ traditions and culture while some others were abusive, exhibiting a superiority complex. Ultimately, they were all executive bodies, obeying to the decisions taken by the French government. We should always remember that people are different and multifaceted and thus make an effort to see a person for herself, independently of the stereotypes attached to the community she belongs. Overall, this book is quite easy to read and is full of fun stories and anecdotes that really bring us close to the author and relate to his experiences and journey.

References

Frantz Fanon, Peau noire, masques blancs or Dark Skin, White Masks

Go deeper

To know more about the West African civilisation; traditions, wisdom, culture, philosophy and spirituality, especially from the Bambara and Fulani communities, you can read Aspects of the African civilisation or Aspects de la civilisation Africaine from the same author.

***Some proverbs taken from this book are available in the article about 10 African proverbs from the Fula and Bambara traditions.